A Day In The Life
by Lucius Malloy
Summary: Lily and James's relationship as seen through a collection of vignettes in no particular order.
1. Midnight

**A/N:** This is an idea I've been playing around with for a while – a series of 24 unconnected Lily/James drabbles, one for each hour of the day. They won't be in chronological order – well, they will, in a way... The relationship isn't portrayed in order, but the hours will be. If that made sense... Also, the Lily and James featured in each drabble will be the same.

This idea has probably been done before, but I haven't read any stories like this, so I'm not plagiarising (least not intentionally).

**MIDNIGHT: Seventh Year**

It was almost midnight on New Year's Eve, and the Head Students' Common Room was crowded with sixth and seventh years, writhing and dancing to the music issuing from enchanted speakers hidden some place or the other. Lily Evans, Head Girl, figured she was the only one still sober – the Butterbeer, Firewhiskey and other more or less alcoholic drinks had been flowing freely all night, and it wasn't like Hogwarts students to stay away, especially not if it was a special occasion such as New Year's.

She thought she was the only one still sober, until her boyfriend of exactly one week walked towards her.

James Potter, Head Boy and Quidditch captain, was walking perfectly straight, and Lily knew that while he was an excellent Chaser and all-round coordinated person when sober, the tiniest bit of alcohol could and probably would make him literally dance around. If James Potter was walking straight, he was stone cold sober.

He walked right up to where she was half-hiding on the lowest of three stairs that led to her room and dropped a kiss on her forehead. "Hey."

"Hey yourself," Lily replied. "Why aren't you partying your guts out?"

"Why aren't you?" he countered.

"I just... Didn't feel like it today. Besides, most of these people are completely plastered – someone needs to watch out for them, make sure no one does anything stupid."

"And you, being Lily Evans, naturally signed up for that role."

"And I, being Lily Evans, naturally signed up for that role," she agreed.

"Well, Lily Evans, there's this one thing I was thinking of doing... And guess what? You can do it completely sober, if you'd like. In fact, it's probably even better that we're completely sober."

"And what might that be?" Lily asked, half dreading the answer.

"My dear Lily," James said, sitting down next to her and taking her hand. "I want to make our relationship public. I want you to come and dance with me, to hold my hand, to let people see us together. And most of all, I want you to kiss me at midnight."

"Is that so, James?" Lily drawled.

"It is quite so, Lils. How about it? We'll have to tell people some time, and this way we don't have to do any actual telling."

Lily was tempted to tell him no, to tell him to wait a while, but even as she opened her mouth she realised she didn't have a single logical reason to keep their relationship to themselves. And so she stood, James's hand still in hers, and started pulling him up. "I guess we have some dancing to do then," she said with a smile.

Grinning like the cat that got the cream, James led her to the middle of the makeshift dance floor, weaving their way through the more or less drunken students. He turned, putting his hands on Lily's waist and relishing the feeling of her small hands winding their way around his neck.

A few minutes later, when they kissed on the stroke of midnight, the entire crowd stopped, turned and stared. Lily, however, didn't notice – she was too busy seeing stars and wondering why the hell it had taken her so long to give in.

**A/N:** Yes, I had to do the clichéd New Year's kiss thing... It is almost New Year's, after all. And I happen to like clichés.


	2. One AM

**ONE AM – Second Year**

12-year-old James Potter woke up in the middle of the night, not quite knowing why. He checked his watch – 1:13 AM. With a sigh, he got out of bed, intending only to get a glass of water and then go back to sleep. He was almost at the bathroom door when he heard an unidentifiable sound coming from the Common Room below. It sounded almost like someone was crying, but really slowly.

He crept down the stairs carefully, stopping when he was far enough to see into the circular room. He didn't quite know what he was expecting, but it definitely wasn't what he saw – tiny little Lily Evans, curled up asleep on the couch that faced the fire, clutching a huge Charms book to her chest and a quill in the hand that was hanging off the side. The sight was so endearing that he couldn't help but smile, wishing he had one of those Muggle picture-taking machines... what was it called, camarera? Because he was quite sure that it would be a long time until he next saw Lily looking so vulnerable, if indeed it ever happened again.

He went down the few remaining steps as quietly as possible, freezing half-way between the stairs and the couch when Lily stirred a bit. She merely turned, though, hugging the Charms book closer. A shiver passed through her as James took a few steps closer, and he realised she must be freezing – the fire had gone out long ago, and Lily was only wearing her school skirt and Oxford shirt, her robes probably lying discarded on the floor of the second-year girls' dormitory. Her tie had come loose a little bit, and her hair had mostly escaped the two braids it had been contained in, so it formed a fiery halo around her head. On the table, James could see an unfinished Charms essay – one that wasn't due for another two weeks. He laughed quietly. "Oh, Lily," he whispered to himself. "How typical of you."

She shivered again, as if in agreement. James shifted his attention to the room around him, looking for – aha! A blanket he could drape over the poor girl. There was a Gryffindor throw on the next armchair, and he tiptoed over to get it before covering Lily with it gently. He tucked the blanket under her chin, carefully brushing her hair out of her face. She sighed, and James froze, hoping to hell that Lily would not choose this moment to wake up. She didn't, however, just pulled the blanket closer and settled down further. James sighed in relief and backed away, not turning his back on Lily until he reached the boys' staircase.


	3. Two AM

A/N: I've stopped apologising a long time ago.

* * *

><p><strong><span>TWO AM – FIFTH YEAR<span>**

He had to admit, he was surprised when he peeked around the corner and found her drunk at the top of the Astronomy Tower.

Well, he wasn't surprised that he found her at the top of the tower – the map had shown him that, which was why he was there – but he was surprised that she was entirely wasted. He'd never even seen her drinking before.

Somewhere in the distance, one of the assorted clocks that littered the hallways of Hogwarts chimed twice. It was two in the morning. James let out a sigh.

Carefully, he rounded the corner and entered her field of vision.

"Er, Lily?" he asked tentatively. "Are you, ah, okay?"

Seemingly shaken out of some sort of reverie, she looked at him as if she was trying to focus her vision. "Do I look 'kay?" she managed to get out.

James laughed, but stopped abruptly when she glared at him through her drunken haze. "Is this f-funny?" she asked.

"No," he said, chuckling again, "I'm sorry. I was just about to say, you do normally look better, but even now you look more than okay." He would have winked, but felt it might have gone over her head just a little bit in the state she was currently in – or she might have slapped him, both were very real possibilities.

He gestured to the empty space on the floor near her. "May I?"

"I don't own the bloody floor, do I?" Lily asked, still glaring. James sat down, suppressing another chuckle. He was used to Lily insulting him, but the tone and the inebriety were both new. When drunk, she didn't sound as furious as she usually did, but rather like she was only angry for the sake of being angry at him.

"So what's made you get yourself into this mess?" he asked. She turned to look at him blankly.

"Do you really expect me to believe you haven't heard?" she countered, and turned away again. Had James looked closely enough, he would have seen the tears dripping from her chin to her lap.

"Okay, fair enough," he said, putting an arm around her. She tensed, then relaxed into him. "Just so you know," he continued, "I always thought that Thomas kid was a bit of a dick."

She sighed. "I thought – it's stupid, I know, but I thought he could be the one." The blood in James's veins felt like ice, but he did nothing to show it.

"There'll be others," he told her, half-heartedly. Half-heartedly, because he knew that he would probably never be one of the others; he would have to watch other boys claim her heart and then stamp it to pieces, because Merlin knows that's what happens when you're fifteen. When you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you're going to believe it.

She turned, looked at him, her eyes lighting up a little. "You think?" she asked in a small voice.

"I know," he said firmly. _If you'd let me, I'd love you in a heartbeat_, he added in his mind. "Now come on, I think it's time we got you back to the dormitories, yes?"

Her face slipped into a panicked expression. "But – but what if someone sees us?"

"Don't worry," James smiled. "I can fix it." He pulled out his Invisibility Cloak, and in the state she was in, Lily didn't even question it, nor did she protest when he picked her up and started to carry her down the stairs.

On the way back to Gryffindor Tower, a thought occurred to James. "Where did you even get the alcohol?"

Lily laughed softly. "James, I've been in the same house with you for nearly five years. I've learned a few things."

When they reached the tower, he was still thinking about the fact that she had called him _James_.

* * *

><p>AN: yes, that was an intentional Taylor Swift quote.


	4. Three AM

A/N: Hi! You know that gif of the girl from American Horror Story going all "surprise, bitch, bet you thought you'd seen the last of me"? Yep, that's me.

**THREE AM – SIXTH YEAR**

For the past three hours or so, Lily had diligently been trying to convince herself that she could fall asleep even with the music blaring in the common room below. She had the power to shut the party down – she was a Prefect, after all – but Gryffindor had just won the Quidditch Cup, and what kind of Gryffindor would she be if she rained on the team's parade?

Not that she really cared what the team thought of her, she hastened to correct herself. Especially not the Captain. Oh, no. No caring there at all, none whatsoever. And she definitely wasn't hiding in her dormitory instead of celebrating with the rest of her house like she normally would be because of him. Never.

With a sigh, Lily rolled over and burrowed further into her blankets, trying to fall asleep for what had to be the hundredth time since midnight. She knew even as she forced her eyes to close that there would be no sleep for her until the party shut down, and that could happen in five minutes or five hours.

It seemed, however, that someone was smiling down on Lily, because it only took a few moments for the music to abruptly shut off. Sending a silent prayer of thanks to whoever had brought on the silence, she closed her eyes again, ready to drift off into sleep, but something niggled at her conscience.

_I should really go downstairs and make sure everything's okay… _she thought, not liking the idea at all. _I should go check that none of the younger kids were exposed to anything unsanitary. _She very determinedly did not think of the older students who very definitely were exposed to these unsanitary things, because as long as she didn't think of them in general, she wouldn't think of one in particular.

"Ugh," she groaned as she hunted around for a sweatshirt to pull on over her pyjamas. Grabbing her wand, she started down the staircase and began to mentally prepare herself for the destruction she was probably about to witness and the idiots who couldn't hold their Firewhiskey that she would have to somehow get into their beds.

As it turned out, however, there was only one idiot. And to his credit, he was trying to deal with the (mild) destruction in the common room. It just so happened, however, that he was very much having problems in the holding-his-Firewhiskey department, and as such his efforts weren't doing much good.

Lily knew who it was even before he turned at the sound of her feet on the stairs.

"Evans!" he said, grinning widely. "Come to join the party? You're a bit late, you know."

"Sorry, Potter," she said with a bit of a smile. "I'm just the clean-up crew."

"Well that's not fair, is it?" he asked, slurring just a little. "You should have come to the party." He frowned a little. "Why weren't you at the party?"

_Avoiding the fact that I probably fancy you and the fact that putting you and me and alcohol in a room together probably isn't a good idea right now, _she thought. What she said, however, was "I was just a little tired, that's all. Though I suppose I might as well have stayed down here, it's not like I was ever going to get much sleep."

"You should have come to the party," he repeated. He took a step backwards, tripped over a table leg, and fell onto the sofa. "Oops," he said, but made no effort to get up.

"Had a bit too much to drink there, Potter?" Lily asked, but it was more out of concern than reproach.

"You weren't there," he muttered. "I got bored. Had to do something."

Lily's breath caught a little, but then she reminded herself that despite what she thought was probably going on she was _not supposed to fancy James Potter_.

"Well then," she said, and if James hadn't been so drunk he may have noticed that her tone was slightly off, but as it was it went unnoticed. "The party's pretty much over now, I'd say, so let's get you up to bed, yeah?"

"Will you come with me?" James asked without skipping a beat, and Lily laughed.

"No, Potter, not tonight. I will take you there, though, because I'm not sure you'll manage on your own." She held out a hand and James grabbed it, letting her pull him to his feet. "Come on, then."

She let him put an arm around her –_ just for support, of course _– as they walked up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Occasionally, Lily directed her wand at some of the more pertinent messes (such as bodily fluids), but figured she'd deal with the rest later. And by deal, of course, she meant she'd make sure that those responsible for the mess were also responsible for the cleaning.

They got to the sixth-year boys' dorm mainly without incident. Lily did have to slap James's hands away once or twice, but she couldn't bring herself to be annoyed. Unceremoniously, she pushed him slightly so he keeled over straight into his bed.

"Ugh," he moaned, putting his hand to his head, but Lily couldn't bring herself to very sympathetic, either.

"You'll feel even better in the morning," she promised with a chuckle. "Do try and sleep or you'll feel even worse."

James made a noncommittal noise, and Lily headed towards the door with a smile. She was about to close it behind her when James called out. "Night, Lily."

"Night, James."


End file.
